


Bright and Shining

by Phoebmonster



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: 5 Times, F/F, from children to adults
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-01
Packaged: 2018-08-12 11:21:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7932727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoebmonster/pseuds/Phoebmonster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The five times Nicole and and Waverly met ... whilst in fancy dress. (mentions of homphobia, but its all okay in the end :) )</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bright and Shining

**Author's Note:**

> this took me like 4 months to finish whoops

Nicole was 4 and was just getting the hang of first grade when the Christmas play rolled around. She wasn't overly talkative, but had made friends with a number of the boys over games of football and 'police chase', and her teacher had called her 'above average', which her parents felt heralded a lifetime of achievement. However, she appeared to have been forgotten when the parts for the Christmas play were dished out, and was tacked on the end as 'Donkey No.3'

Still, her mother dutifully sewed a tail onto a grey onesie and ears onto an alice band, and the class practised every Friday afternoon. Nicole had no lines, so she merely practised standing and singing the song at the right time. Most of the other children messed about - but not the girl playing the Angel. Nicole remembered her name from the register - Waverly. It did sound like an angel name, Nicole thought, head in hand, staring at the tiny girl on the stage behind her deliver her lines.

When the night finally rolled around, Nicole had her faced scrubbed and hair brushed, then was zipped into her costume, and, with a kiss from her mom and dad, went on the stage to be the best donkey she could be.

When the lights went up, she gasped.

At the top of the stage, the scene stared, but Nicole only looked at Waverly. She wore a bridesmaids dress, white and frilly, with some golden tinsel around her waist. Fixed to her back were angel wings, largely papier mache and white pillow feathers, but the top of one was clearly secured on using masking tape. Although she always wore her hair up at school, tonight it was down, and it fell over her shoulders in waves, reaching to just above her waist.

Nicole couldn't believe it. An actual angel, up there on the stage! When the lights fell on her to deliver her line, Waverly seemed to glow, and Nicole felt her stomach do flip-flops. She was so captivated that she missed the beginning of the song, and only lurched into it when Tommy Baker (Cow No.2) stood on her foot.

After it had finished and she had done enough bows, Nicole spent the drive home in silence, picking fluff from her tail.

That night, she dreamt of angel girls with beautiful, broken wings.

///

Every May, Ghost Valley grade school had a Book Day, where everyone dressed up as their favourite character and read books all day. Nicole was three days shy of turning seven and felt it was time to step her costume up a notch. Her mother sewed the Gryffindor lion onto a black flannel dressing gown, and she wore a pinafore, white shirt and her dad's red tie (which was far too big) and a red and gold scarf that had been carefully knitted by her grandmother. Her hair had been pulled out of her usual braid, and she felt she made a very convincing Ginny Weasley.

At lunch break, the class lined up on the field to have their photo taken by their third grade teacher, Mrs Neadley. It was then that Nicole noticed that Waverly was not dressed up - she was wearing jeans that were clearly too big for her and a stained t-shirt. Mrs Neadley sighed, and gestured for Waverly to move out of the frame. "Go sit on the bench, please, Waverly." She said, not unkindly, but as the smallest Earp shuffled away, Nicole could see her bottom lip quivering.

After the photo was taken, the class ran into all corners of the playground, bouncing off of each other like bubbles, and quickly joined the rest of the school in playing. Through all the noise, it took Nicole a while to find Waverly - but there she was, on a bench at the side of the school building, next to the brambles and overgrown gardening attempts from previous years. Her knees were pressed up against her chest and her arms wrapped around them, and Nicole saw how tiny she really was. She moved in silence and sat next to her.

"I'm sorry you didn't get your picture taken." Nicole said gently, not wanting to break the bramble walled silence.

Waverly didn't look up.

"Did ... did you not have an idea for a costume?" said Nicole again, rather thrown by the lack of response.

When Waverly did look up, Nicole saw the tears in her eyes and on her cheeks.

"My Daddy died. And my sister. And 'Nonna has gone to the prison in the city because they think she's crazy and I've got no one so I just ..." Waverly buried her head in her hands again, shaking, and Nicole did the only thing she could - she took the smaller girl's hand in her own and held it tightly.

"Waverly... I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

"Everyone knows now." Waverly said quietly. "But they can't do anything."

They sat in silence, hand in hand. Then, Nicole let go and unwound the scarf from her neck and wrapped it around Waverly instead.

"You can be Hermione - she's a Gryffindor, and she's really brave and really clever - she's in my book, look -"

Nicole opened the book and Waverly smiled a watery smile, and Nicole didn't even mind that she'd wiped her nose on the scarf.

"C'mon, lets go find sticks, they can be our wands, and we can do spells and stuff."

Nicole stood up and Waverly followed - scarf trailing along the ground - and reached forward to grab the taller girls hand in her own. They did not let go for the rest of lunch.

///

Nicole kept an eye on Waverly after that, and watched from afar as she found relative stability at Gus' and silently rejoiced when Wynonna came back, if only briefly. It was just over a year later, when Nicole was 8 and Waverly was 7, that they met again, properly.

Jessica Ashton, second most popular girl in fourth grade was throwing a birthday party - bouncy castle, pizza, the lot, and invited the whole class (and even some friends from other grades.) The invitation proclaimed that the theme was 'Pirates and Princesses', and Nicole was thrilled. She badgered her mom until she went out and bought the black and white stripped leggings, loose fitting shirt, shoes with brass buckles, an eye-patch and huge admiral’s hat, with a crude skull and crossbones stitched on. She stuck her cutlass in the loop of the oversized plastic belt, and proudly marched to Jessica's door with a card and present in pink, foil paper.

It was around ten minutes in when Nicole noticed that none of the girls had come to talk to her, and were whispering, but the bad stage kind, behind their hands. Her skin prickled, and she felt sick in her stomach, like the time she was 5 and ate half an ice-cream cake at her aunt's wedding.

Then, Jessica pushed through the crowd of excited children and milling parents, in a long, blue Cinderella dress. She looked Nicole up and down, and sneered.  
"Nice costume."

Nicole was floundering. "It said Pirates and Princesses -”

"Yeah, Pirates for the boys, Princesses for the girls - you don't see any boy princesses, do you?"

She felt sick, like the cake was about to make a reappearance, as the other girls laughed, all dressed as glittering princesses. Jessica turned and sauntered off, and Nicole moved to follow her, but Maddie (the most popular girl in fourth grade) moved in front of her.

"Go back and play with the boys, Nic."

Nicole turned and ran.

She ended up by the food table, holding back tears as she picked at the crisp bowl.

It wasn't fair, she kept thinking, over and over. No one had told her. Why hadn't anyone told her?

She felt someone standing next to her, and looked up, hand reaching for her cutlass.

It was Waverly, hair curled over her shoulder, in a pale pink dress, all sequins and netting. Nicole remembered then, of the little angel girl, but it was gone in an instant. Waverly reached forwards and pinched a crisp from the bowl.

"They're wrong you know. There are loads of lady pirates - Mary Reed, Queen Teuta of Illyria - Anne Bonny even had red hair! So ... they're wrong."

Nicole couldn't help but laugh, and Waverly grinned.

"You don't need them. They just want to paint their nails anyway - playing outside sounds much more fun."

They spent the rest of the party leaping around on the bouncy castle, Nicole flourishing her cutlass at imaginary sea monsters and holding Waverly's hand as she saved the princess again and again.

///

'Nic' became a taunt until High School, when in the summer between seventh and eighth grade, Nicole hit puberty like a truck and grew 6 inches. It wasn't always fun being gangly and ginger, but she kept out of trouble and kept a small group of friends, one of whom invited her to a house party on Halloween. Costumes were, of course, essential.

She scoured the internet and eventually settled on a BBC Sherlock Holmes costume - long black cloak, blue scarf, deerstalker, then a variety of magnifying glasses and 'clues' (tea stained bits of paper.)

The hat doubled up as a useful tool to carry more candy, as she went through the neighbourhood, trick - or - treating. At 13, she knew this was the last year she could do this, and a wave of nostalgia came over her. Soon, a small gang of her friends and their friends had made it to Arthur's house, to start the party.

It was midnight when a small gaggle of party goers found themselves all in the garden, in a reasonably circle like shape. Arthur, who was dressed as the Joker (although his face paint was thoroughly smudged), pulled out two, twelve sided dice.

"Guys! Guys. Let’s play this - there’s eleven of us - so we each have a number, and we role the first dice to see what we have to do, then a second to see who we do it with."

After a brief squabble, all the teenagers had a number, and agreed a series of dares from one to twelve.

Arthur rolled the dice and Nicole suddenly felt nervous. Several goes went by without including her, then the dice landed on 9 - her number.

"Nic!" Yelled Ryan (a poor man's ghostbuster.) "Roll it again!"

7 - 7 minutes in heaven.

Nicole tried to laugh it off but suddenly, was acutely aware that this would be her first real kiss, and most of the people round this circle were boys and she didn't want to kiss boys, and the only girls were Shannon, Martine, Jessica and -

11 - Waverly.

Nicole looked up to see Waverly, looking up and at the boys, laughing and hooting.

"Get into the shed!" Arthur said, having taken on the mantle of dare enforcer. "And we won't let you out until 7 minutes is up."

They were paraded to the bottom of the garden, ankles damp from the grass, and thrown into the tiny shed, which was then bolted from the outside. Nicole sat down with a thump, but Waverly did so more carefully, avoiding all the spiders’ webs and broken pots.

"I like your costume." Nicole said, just to break the silence. "I don't know who you are though."

Waverly smiled, the light of the moon bouncing off her cheeks and casting her in silver.

"No one does. I'm Kiki - from a Japanese film called Kiki's Delivery Service, about a young witch who leaves home and can fly. It’s very good."

Nicole looked at the dark blue smock dress, the large red bow perched on top of her head, and the toy black cat pecking out of a large brown satchel.

"Oh ... nice." She said, quietly, then gestured to her own outfit. "I'm Sherlock Holmes."

Waverly smiled again and Nicole felt something in her chest. This isn't right, a little voice in her head reminded her.

"So ... have you done this before?" Nicole said, trying to disguise her nervousness.

"What, this game or kissing?"

"Both."

Waverly ran a hand through her hair in thought.

"I kissed Matthew Woods in fourth grade, does that count?"

Nicole laughed, despite herself, and soon Waverly was giggling too.

"Him? He was gross! He used to pull the wings off of flies!"

"That was third grade." Waverly said, grinning. "By fourth grade he was a changed man!"

Nicole shook her head and smiled.

"What about you?"

"Me?" Nicole felt the nervousness come back, spreading across her chest like ice. "No. Not yet."

"Oh, well I'm sure you'll find the right guy someday." Waverly said with a shrug.

"Do you want to do anything?" Nicole blurted out, but immediately wished she hadn't, as she watched the expression on Waverly's face morph into confusion.

"I don't kiss girls. I'm not like that." Waverly said shortly and Nicole's half formed reality shattered completely.

"Yeah, I'm the same but ... this is my first kiss and I ... need the practise."

It even sounded hollow to her own ears, but Waverly shrugged and smiled.

"Fine. I'm pretty sure I'm not expert though."

It all happened in an instant - Waverly moved into her knees and pushed forwards onto all fours, leaning up so her mouth made contact with Nicole's.

She didn't know what to do, only move her lips in the way she'd see in movies. One hand reached to tangle in Waverly's hair, the other on her waist.

Then it was over, but Waverly's face stayed inches from her own.

"You’re a good kisser." Waverly said with a smile, before moving back to the other side of the shed. Then, they heard the bolt being moved and the shed door opened, and Waverly hopped up to join the rest of the party. Nicole joined her, but felt sick.

She used the house phone to call her mom and went home.

That night, Nicole played it, over and over, the sour taste of her lips from the candy, the softness of her hair, how kissing her made her feel like she was flying. But she still felt sick.

Her parents had never said anything outright, but when she was 10, civil partnership became legal in the UK. She watched TV, cross legged, whilst her mom tutted behind her.

"Disgusting. How can they think they can live like that? I'm glad you’re not one of those girls, Nicole, and you've grown out of acting like a boy."

Nicole lay in bed, crying silently into her pillow, because she knew - she was one of those girls that everybody hated.

She fell asleep in the early hours of the morning, to dreams of kissing soft lips and holding hands with angel girls.

In November, her mom moved out of state to find a better job, and Nicole never looked back.

///

Nicole didn't know what she was doing when she agreed to the posting in Purgatory - she'd spent her childhood wondering what it would be like to leave, yet here she was, back again. But, it was either this job or waiting a year or more for a city posting, and her money had almost run out. Her parents had cut her off at 18, after discovering Nicole and her "friend" being more than friendly in her room over Christmas break. Now Nicole was here - broke, single, in a tiny flat above the Greengrocers with only her cat (a rescued stray, named Toast) and four bin bags of crap from her dorm room at the police academy.

She was only a few days into the job when Jacob, the other town Deputy, invited her to a Christmas party at Shorty's - dressing up, non-optional. It wasn't that hard to find a black jumper in the back of her closet, and spent an evening after work carefully cutting out small stars from glittering card and attaching them onto it. Combined with some star deeley-boppers and a large, tin foil covered star on her chest, she felt she made a very convincing Star of David.

Nicole had onto set foot in Shorty's a few times before, but only with her dad. It was exactly as she remembered it - all dark wood, baseball memorabilia and artefacts loosely connected to the town legend, Wyatt Earp. Before she could get to the bar, she was swept up by her colleagues and spent the first half hour explaining to everyone how and why she was back - glossing over the part about being gay and subsequently being disowned. That conversation seemed a little heavy an event where most people were dressed as elves, reindeers and 'sexy santas.'

Connor Davids (in grade 2, he was a lack lustre goalkeeper, now, training to be an undertaker,) slammed his hand into Nicole's back by way of getting her attention and pointed to the bar.

"Nic! You remember Waverly, right?"

Nicole turned slowly.

There she was.

Waverly Earp.

Dressed as an angel, but this time the dress was a lot shorter, and the wings were covered in sparkling wrapping paper.

Nicole couldn't breathe, but she felt herself being pushed towards the bar. Waverly turned to face her, but didn't look up yet.

"What'll it be, hun?"

Then she looked up and Nicole couldn't have replied if she'd tried. Deep brown eyes met her own, then Waverly gasped.

"Nicole? Is that really you?"

She grinned and nodded. "How many tall red heads do you know?"

In a flash, she was round the bar and into Nicole's arms, squeezing her tightly.  
Waverly moved back and beamed at her friend.

"When did you get back? I haven't seen you since high school! What happened?"

"That's a lot of questions, Wave. It's also a ... really long story." Nicole smiled gently and Waverly dropped the cloth she was holding onto the bar, then removed her apron.

"I've got time."

After explaining everything (well, mostly everything), the two had re-joined the party and both drank far too much, culminating in Waverly performing a very emotional version of 'All I want for Christmas is you' whilst stood on the pool table (Nicole thought she was rather good.) It was a little after four when Gus shut the bar and Nicole took Waverly back to her apartment, supporting her as they climbed the stairs.

At the top, Waverly kept her arm around her friend and cupped her cheek with her spare hand.

"Niiic .... I had fun tonight" She said slowly, and Nicole grinned.

"I did too, Waves. I guess I'll see you around."

Nicole made to move away but Waverly's grip was surprisingly secure.

"You were my first kiss, Nic." She said it so quietly, Nicole wondered if she'd even said it at all.

"What about Matthew Woods?"

"He doesn't count." Waverly said with a sly smile, and leant forwards to press her lips to the corner of Nicole's mouth. At her look of surprise, Waverly looked up.

"Mistletoe. Merry Christmas, Nicole."

Nicole smiled and in a burst of alcohol fuelled courage, she kissed Waverly on the cheek.

"Merry Christmas, Waves."

Nicole felt dazed as she walked home, and she wasn't sure it was from the alcohol.

///

Nicole pulled her arms through the shirt and started doing up the buttons. She still had 15 minutes before Waverly came to pick her up, but she wouldn't be a cop if she wasn't early.

She couldn't believe it. A whole year in Purgatory, and nearly that long dating Waverly. An awful lot had happened - demons, possession, kidnapping, getting shot, gaining and losing another Earp sister, getting a promotion, hosting her first dinner party ... and more kissing than she had planned for.

Waverly had turned her life upside down, with her small smiles and big plans. As Nicole looked around the apartment, she could see touches of Waverly everywhere, in the books on Greek mythology and language on the coffee table to her shirts folded over the chair. They divided their time between the apartment and the homestead, and Nicole smiled softly when she realised the homestead was probably full of her belongings too.

Some part of Nicole's mind wondered if this was all going too fast - getting settled down at 22 was so stereo-typically lesbian it made her cringe a little. They cooked together and got ice cream on Sunday nights and her cat missed her when she was gone, and Nicole spent slow days at work dreaming of a little house with two cats and three ginger children with names beginning with W.

Nicole jumped when she heard a knock at the door. She quickly pulled her jacket on and reached into her pocket, feeling for the cold metal band of the ring.

She took a deep breath, and opened the door.

**Author's Note:**

> i hoped u guys liked it! share with ur gay ass wayhaught friends... or kudos nd comment <3


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